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THE MILITARY ORDER OF THE LOYAL LEGION 
OF THE UNITED STATES 



ADDRESS 



BREVET MAJ.-GENERAL RUTHERFORD B. HAYES 



FIFTH QUADRENNIAL CONGRESS 



CHICAGO ILLINOIS 



April 17th 1885 






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Fifth Quadrennial Congress of the Order, Chicago, April 15-17, 1885. 

Extract from the minutes : — 

Brevet Major-General E. W. Hinks, representative from Massachusetts. 

Resolved, That the remarks of our Acting Commander and presiding 
officer be printed and forwarded to the several Commanderies of the 
Order. 

The resolution was unanimously adopted. 

Attest : 

John P. Nicholson, 

Brevet Lieutenant-Colonel, U. S. V., 

Acting Recorder-in-Chief. 



Companions, this motion will close the business of 
the Congress. I am greatly obliged to the represent- 
atives of the various commanderies for their kindness 
and support during the performance of unfamiliar duties, 
and I trust that the acquaintance now made, and the 
fraternal regard which will date back to the meeting 
of this Congress, are to continue as lang as we shall 
live. I feel assured that all who shall be informed 
of the facts will be satisfied that there has been a 
degree of harmony, of good temper, and of fairly 
good judgment in our action which is entirely worthy 
of the order to which we belong. I trust that it 
will be discovered that this is true of our work ; and 
to be worthy of this order is certainly the highest 
praise. For we believe — we begin to feel sure — that the 
order of the Loyal Legion that was established in 1865, 
on the 15th of April, in the midst of the deep gloom 
that then fell upon the country, is to be entirely 
worthy of the good cause in which it had its origin, — 
a cause which may be said to be, as was said of the 
Revolutionary war by Emerson, — "a spotless cause." 



Indeed, it was the best — the divlnest — cause for which 
men ever went to war. We ourselves did not fully 
appreciate the cause for which we were risking our 
lives when we were engaged in the great conflict. It 
is certainly true of this war, that it stands alone in the 
wars of all history, as the one war that accomplished 
all — completely and exacdy — that the friends of the right 
wished and sought when they were forced to take up 
arms. It established the Union; it maintained the 
supremacy of the General Government; it abolished 
slavery. This was all that we then thought of; But 
it can be said further, if wars are to be judged by 
their results, that our war was the greatest war in all 
history. Its results have transcended immeasurably the 
most sanguine anticipations of those who took part in 
it. It is our good fortune to have fought on the right 
side in our country's time of need. The four years of 
the war are therefore the best years of our lives. 
Those years are indeed golden. The inheritance 
which that service enables us to leave to those who 
shall come after us, is an inheritance more precious 
than the best success in accumulating wealth, or the 
highest gratification of ambition for civil honors. Think 
of the war and its results. The vanquished now admit, 
in every form, that they have gained by this war more 
than it can be shown that the victor in any other war 
^ver gained by the most complete and brilliant triumph. 



The brave men of the South who foueht against us -^ 
are now ready with us to stand guard around the couch 
and the home of the illustrious soldier by whom they 

were beaten at Donelson and Shiloh, Vicksburg and - 

Mission Ridge, Richmond and Appomattox, and fer- 
vently to pray with us, God bless General Grant. But, 
companions, I must not detain you. I trust you will 
have safe and agreeable journeys to your homes, and 
that there you will find that your families have enjoyed 
the protection and blessing of the Divine Being who 
holds in his hand the lives and destinies of individuals 
and of nations. 




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